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The Green Fire
The Green Fire is a Libram detailing the origin of the goddess Shalune. Not commonly found in print, it is a rare text originally recorded by a Gnomish scholar from accounts of the period and synthsized into a historical tale. Origin Worship of the Goddess of Magic has its start during The Great Silence when divine magic was forbidden to humans due to their involvement in bringing the infernal and abyssal forces to the prime material plane. Their actions cost the lives of many deities and the survivors were not going to let the humans slip by without exacting a fitting punishment. During this time, magical healing - even that which was cast by a cleric or druid of another race - was unaffective upon humans. They had been spurned by the gods. In this time, many humans turned to herbal and natural cures found in alchemy - especially when the Gnomes of Gizad offered their knowledge to help the humans. Some others, eager to regain the power lost or to gain it where none had existed before, started to learn witchcraft or, what others would know it as, Natural Magic. This magic was, previously, only known or accessible to the Druids but some humans began tapping into the life energy used in this form of magic through ornate rituals. How the first 'witches' gained the knowledge of these rituals is not known but as their power was not understood (as few humans had ever met a real druid at this time), the magic was misnamed as 'the Craft'. It is thought that Shalune (or the woman who would become her) was originally a priestess of Amara, the goddess of healing and compassion. The priestess, having lost her divine powers after the Night of Fire, prayed desperately to her goddess for aid and guidance but found no answer. As friends, family and followers began to die from disease and injury and she was helpless to aid them, she left her temple and set out to find answers among the elves of Mythquendyl. There, it is said, she gained knowledge of Life Magic and returned years later to recruit others to perform the healing rituals. This group became the first known Coven. Many groups claim to be this first coven or founded by its members, but what is known is that the first coven was destroyed by a noble who saught revenge against them for failing to heal a loved one (its unclear whether it was a wife or child). The coven was made up of local townsfolk, men and women alike, and they were arrested by the nobleman, tortured for their knowledge and information on the others in their group and, more importantly, their leader. The former priestess called upon Amara once more, begging the Goddess to intercede and safe her followers and friends. Again, there was no reply and each one of them was burned. The priestess was enraged at the nobleman and turned her knowledge of Life Magic against him, corrupting him and all those who followed him with a corrupted form of Natural Magic. To escape any retaliation from the survivors, the Priestess left the area and wandered the land. It is during this period where many of the witch lineages began as they claim to be directly taught by the Priestess. Since any gathering of people to discuss magic or its teaching was suspect - especially with the Order of the Blazing Sun out in force attempting to keep control over a population panicked by the lack of divine healing - her new followers had to meet at night; often under a crescent moon. Too much moon light and their meetings would be easily spotted by spies or scouts, too little and her growing number of followers might lose their way in the dark. Copies of the Priestess' Book of Rituals (Ladder) also began circulating among her followers, though it was possible that she did this to potentially throw the OBS off her trail as she moved, letting them investigate smaller covens while she moved around secretly. Her Book became known as the 'Emerald Eye' due to the large, green, eye-shaped design upon the cover. Many consider this the name of the first Coven, or possibly a reference to the color of the priestess' eyes after she began using more and more Natural Magic. As green eyes were uncommon in humans (save for those born with some Sylvanari ancestry), the phrase "meander than a green-eyed witch" is thought to be based upon those witches who had grown in their use of Life Magic. During this indeterminate number of years, the priestess and her followers became more and more associated with meetings under the crescent moon. Her former calling, a priestess of Amara, had given her the title of 'Daughter of the Moon' but she altered the title and used the elven translation of 'Hidden Moon' or 'Sha-lune'. It is said that at one meeting, a stranger entered her circle and asked to be taught the secrets of her magic. Wary of spies sent by the Order of the Blazing Sun, Shalune did not trust the stranger one bit. She aggreed to accept the stranger into the circle if, and only if, he enter a circle of truth and answer three questions. The stranger found her caution amusing and did so but only if she would accompany him into the circle and answer the same number of questions for him. What questions were asked on either side is a matter of much debate, but what is known is that the stranger was accepted into the circle and traveled from meeting to meeting for thirteen moons. He became something of an advisor to her, counseling her to use her magic not just for revenge or to extract justice from one who had harmed one of her followers. Rather, he urged her to use her magic and followers to create 'real' covens, to ensure that they would survive in the coming years as people would, in time, come to them for aid. Heeding his advise, she returned to those smaller covens which had survived the extermination efforts of the OBS and helped fortify them against attack and discovery. When the stranger left her company he gave her a gift and told her that should she ever need to find him again, to 'sink the dagger into the heart of an enemy and speak his name'. He then revealed his name to be Maltharius. Category:Item/Libram Category:Book Category:Witch Category:Shalune Category:Libram